Conference to showcase regional travel

Chris Dale, John Moorhouse and Tony Young, of Travel Watch NorthWest and Chris Holmes, of TfGM

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A conference to showcase the successes of Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) and to boost regional travel co-operation has taken place.

The event held at 2 Piccadilly Place, was jointly organised by TfGM and TravelWatch NorthWest – a voluntary organisation which represents passengers throughout the region.

Eighty-five people were present, representing travel groups and organisations throughout the North West including from the rail, bus and tram industries.

Amongst those in attendance were Northern Rail, Blackpool Council, MerseyTravel, National Express, Stagecoach Manchester and First TransPennine Express.

The event was opened by Councillor Roger Jones, Vice Chair of the TfGM Committee, and Chair of the TfGM’s Capital Projects and Policy Sub Committee.

He said: “We had a wide range of industry experts present from Cumbria, Cheshire, Merseyside, Lancashire, and of course, Greater Manchester - it was a pleasure to open the conference.

“With a number of cross-region projects in the making this was an excellent opportunity to discuss partnership working as well showing at a local level what TfGM has accomplished in recent years.”

Cllr Jones was followed by four TfGM speakers who discussed recent organisational achievements and future ambitions and projects.

The first speaker was Stephen Clark, Rail Programme Director, who dealt with rail devolution and re-franchising. Chris Coleman, Metrolink Managing Director, also spoke about the origins of the Manchester tram system and the future expansion of Metrolink.
Howard Hartley, TfGM Infrastructure Manager, discussed the success of the free Manchester city centre Metroshuttle bus since it was introduced in 2002.

Howard said: “The Metroshuttle bus service has come on leaps and bounds since it started 11 years ago, with now three routes across the city centre - it is a service that we are very proud of.”